Defiant Bernie, 52, says: “OK, it’s not curable. But the doctors have ­promised me the cancer is treatable, it’s ­containable.

“I’m on medication which is ­controlling it, and people have lived for 12 years on these drugs. Who knows what new treatments are around the corner?

“I refuse to sit around like I’ve got a death sentence hanging over my head. I’m going to fight this for ever. It can get stuffed.”

Two years after the mum of one beat breast cancer, the disease has returned and spread to her brain, lungs, liver and bones.

And while friends and fans will be devastated at the news, she insists she will keep on fighting.

“It is harder this time,” she admits. “Because that word has come into it... incurable. That was never there before. But there’s another word I have too, a word I like. Treatable. It could have been worse. It could have just been ­incurable.

“Sometimes when I think about it, I get that feeling of panic in my stomach. Then the Bernie effect kicks in and I think, ‘Oh, bugger off, get on with it’.

“It’s like I’ve got two different people sitting on my shoulders, like Jiminy Cricket. But the strong one always wins. The positive voice always manages to push the panicky one off.”

Unbelievably, Bernie has managed to keep her diagnosis private since ­earlier this summer.

Even the cast of the musical Chicago, who she’s been touring with since February, had no idea. It’s only now, two weeks after explaining the full situation to daughter Erin, 13, that she feels the time is right to speak out.

“It feels like a weight being lifted off my shoulders,” she says. “I had to think long and hard about going public ­because once it’s out there I can’t take it back.

“I’ve really struggled keeping it secret. I hate lying. For friends who don’t know and are reading this, I know it’s awful to hear. But I hope they understand why I haven’t been able to tell them yet.

“I just couldn’t face ringing everyone. What do you say? ‘Hi, how are you? Well, I’ve got incurable cancer, have you got any news?’”

Support: The Nolan Sisters (Image: Publicity Picture)

It was appearing on ITV1’s Daybreak earlier this month that made Bernie feel under real pressure about who to tell.

“I was speaking to Lorraine Kelly during Breast Cancer Awareness Week and she asked me how I was,” says Bernie. “I just changed the subject, but it’s that sort of thing that doesn’t sit well with me.

“And who knows what that sort of stress does to your health, wondering who knows, who doesn’t know. I ­apologise to Lorraine now but I couldn’t have said it then.

“My daughter didn’t know the full story so I couldn’t say, ‘Actually, funny you should ask, because it’s back, and it’s spread’. Erin could have been ­watching. I did hate lying like that.”

The first warning sign came in the summer when Bernie spotted a lump on the same side of her chest she’d had her mastectomy back in 2010. She mentioned it to her nurse during her next routine check and, after a scan, a biopsy was carried out.

“I just went back to work after that,” says Bernie. “I was busy on tour, and to be honest I thought it would be fine. But when she phoned me about a week later, I knew.

“It was a Friday night and as soon as I realised it was her, that was it. She told me over the phone my cancer was back.”

Two days later, Bernie and her ­husband Steve Doneathy went to meet her ­surgeon. He said it was likely they would need to remove the lump, and a course of radiotherapy would follow. “I thought, ‘OK, not great, but I can deal with that’,” she recalls. “I didn’t even cry. I think I was in shock a bit, and I was angry.”

In the meantime Bernie had various tests to check if the cancer had spread. “I had a CT scan, a bone scan and then again I was back on tour,” she says. “A few days later I got the second call. It was worse than the first.

“My surgeon said I needed to come in and see him and the oncologist. I said, ‘Right, so it’s not good is it?’ He told me very clearly he couldn’t talk about it over the phone. But he did tell me it had spread. That’s all he would say.”

Bernie’s next job was to tell Steve. “He was so angry,” she recalls. “He was angry because we thought the doctors had got it all the last time. He just couldn’t believe it was back.

“I said to my sister Linda, who was there that night, that I didn’t mind so much it had spread. I just said all I didn’t want to hear was that it had gone ­somewhere like my brain. I said that would be terrible.”

After an agonising weekend of ­waiting, Bernie and Steve finally went to meet her doctors on the Monday.

“My surgeon was there, the oncologist and my breast cancer nurse,” she says. “My oncologist asked me what I knew and then told me they’d found a very small amount in my brain, lungs, liver and bones.

“I feel sick now just thinking about it. You can imagine the shock. Brain, lungs, liver, bones. That’s massive news.

“When I was sitting there it’s almost like I was above myself and I could hear myself saying, ‘How long?’ They said, ‘Well it’s not curable. But it is ­treatable’.

“Steve was green, he looked so sick. He couldn’t speak. As I broke down, the surgeon was fantastic and put his arms around me. I cried, ‘I don’t want to die. I want to see my daughter grow up’.

“He said, ‘We’re not going to let you die. I’ve got people who’ve been on this treatment for 12 years’. Hearing that helped me so much. And the word treatable has saved me.”

The good news is the drugs to contain the disease ARE ­working, and doctors have told Bernie the cancer has gone from her brain.

“It’s unbelievable,” she says. “It was the first piece of ­positive news we’d had for months and the doctors were amazed. They said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it’. And not only has it gone from my brain, but it’s shrunk everywhere else.

“It was then we decided to tell Erin because at least we could pair it up with that good news. Steve and I were ­jubilant.

“And Erin gets that it’s treatable, although she did ask how it’s gone from my brain when they said it was ­incurable. Well I’m buggered if I know, but who cares? Let’s just keep going.

“Every single case is different so you can’t predict how it’s going to go. My doctor said he was sure some of it was down to my positivity, and the fact I’m getting on with life.

“So that confirmed it for me, I’ve got to keep living and having fun and working. I’m not going to sit back and let it get me.”

But while Bernie’s attitude is inspirational, she admits she does have her moments. “I’m not living in denial,” she says. “I know ­exactly what’s going on and what could happen. And of course there are moments when I feel scared.

“I wake up in the morning bright, happy, and then it hits me. I’ve got incurable cancer.

“But then I think, ‘Oh well, feck it. Get up and get on with it’.”

Battler: Bernie left bald in 2010 after treatment (Image: Getty)

Bernie says her family have helped keep her focused. “It can be a desolate feeling if you let it,” she says. “But I’ve got Steve and having a child helps, I can’t let her be any more upset. Erin is an amazing kid. I know all parents say that, but she’s had to put up with a lot.

“She’s seen me with breast cancer, having an operation, reconstruction, she’s seen me bald, with no eyebrows or eyelashes. And now this.

“Steve hates when I say this, but sometimes I really feel sorry for him and Erin. I look at him and think he’s still young and gorgeous and he’s got this stupid illness in his life. Of course he goes crazy when I say that.

“Other people who’ve had what I have will know what I mean. I feel a bit guilty for both of them because there’s sickness in the house. I didn’t want Erin to have that in her life.”

And it’s that too which makes Bernie determined to stay upbeat. “I never cry in front of her,” she says. “There’s so much to be happy and excited about, I refuse to dwell on the negatives.

“And I feel great, I’m not lying. I’ve got a bad back and a few little side-­effects, but nothing I can’t handle. Everyone gets mouth ulcers, lots of people have bad feet, and I’m not even sure it’s the cancer that’s giving me a sore back. I’ve always had one.

“I’m not being funny, but we’re all going to die, we just don’t know when. The only difference is I’ve got a bit of warning, but it could be a 20-year ­warning for all anyone knows. And I’d get pretty bored sitting on the couch for the next 20 years.”

Carrying on with her Chicago tour right up until December, Bernie will have just one day off before getting stuck into panto in Eastbourne. But The Nolans tour which was to follow the week after she finished panto will be postponed for now.

“It’s a family decision,” says Bernie. “I hope our fans will understand. They love us and we love them so hopefully they’ll get it. Something like this makes you think, ‘Hang on a sec, let’s have some time to ourselves rather than working back to back with just days off between ­commitments’.

“I want The Nolans farewell tour to be fabulous but the timing has got to be right. I want to spend some time with Erin and Steve, just time together as a family.”

And her loving family gave Bernie what she says was her best birthday ever two weeks ago.

“Steve and Erin came over to Belfast where I was with Chicago to surprise me,” she says. “I was turning 52 and we had a ­wonderful time. I cried my eyes out when they and the whole cast surprised me. It was a brilliant birthday... and here’s to many more.

“My next goal is Erin’s 21st. That’s eight years from now, and I’ll be there with bells on to make a show of her.”